PREFACE

2011 ANNUAL REPORT ON ANTI-CATHOLICISM

There are many ways of writing an annual report: some organizations list a few major accomplishments, while others provide a tally of incidents or events. We don’t quantify—it’s not easy to do so with qualitative data— but we do offer a descriptive account of the challenges that Catholicism faced in the previous year. Our goal, of course, is to track and combat anti-Catholicism. We don’t win every battle, but we do win our fair share of them. Importantly, we don’t shy away from entering the fray.

There are many good Catholic organizations that serve a host of worthy causes. However, they cannot do their job well in a hostile environment. We don’t expect these groups to spend their day fending off the bullies—they must do what they do best, which is to serve students, the elderly, the poor, the disabled, the lonely and others. The job of fighting the Catholic Church’s adversaries belongs to us.

Our success, to the extent we’ve achieved it, is the result of much hard work. Vice President Bernadette Brady has been effectively running the Catholic League since 1995; I came on board two years earlier. We have five other veterans: Alex Mejia, Tom Arkin, Mary Ellen Kiely, Suzon Loreto and Jeff Field. Mario Pacheco finished his first year with us, and in 2011 we picked up Don Lauer, Dolores Varley and Marcus Plieninger. Whether they work in the policy department or in the processing department, they all have important jobs. That they do their jobs so well is a blessing.

An annual report is not designed to be read cover-to-cover; it is a reference tool. But you may want to keep it handy if you encounter someone who thinks anti-Catholicism is a relic of the past. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Fortunately, we are making strides toward that end. Our agenda is to bring about its demise, and we won’t rest until we do so.